Because this is about STO more than just Trek in general I am not going to elaborate on the Strategic Nightmare that was the Dominion War but instead focus just on the Borg in STO.

Now, on a Star Ship level I would say that generally things are just fine but let us think about a simple strategy problem.

So you are the head of Strategy for the Federation and it is your task to find SOME way to defeat the Borg on the ground.

Ok... So let us see what facts you have to work with:

The Borg move slowly and have no self preservation instinct.

The Borg will attempt to assimilate anyone they can get within reach of.

The Borg have powerful shielding systems that can adapt to most any energy weapon and render it useless.

The Borg have powerful ranged weaponry that can cut through current shields and armor in mere moments.

The Borg can assimilate most any technology they come into contact with in relatively little time.

Kinetic Damage as provided by Explosions, Physical Projectiles, and Melee Weapons ignores the Borg Shielding System and is effective at destroying them.

So armed with this information what do you suggest be replicated to outfit your troops with? What tactics are you going to use to defeat these Cyber Zombies on the ground with?

I think it is rather blatantly obvious that seems how Kinetic damage is the main/only real weakness of the Borg and that they are best dealt with at range that what you will want is something that hits with an armor piercing explosive round. Now it does not need to be that fast to fire or reload because the Borg move so slowly so you have the luxury of replicating a wide array of weaponry for the task. Modern Day Grenade Launchers and Grenades shot out of Shotguns would do the trick very well. Modern day Metal Storm technology would also seem to be a devastating weapon against the Borg. It is sort of the truest irony that their biggest weakness is not some super tech but instead going old school because they have not encountered that as a major line of defense.

Now: Will the Borg eventually adapt with more powerful armors to protect their drones from physical damage? It seems likely that they WOULD eventually adapt this way but in the meantime you have a very effective weapon against them.

What did the Federation and the Klingons do instead? (I mostly leave the KDF out because I firmly believe a Real Klingon would gladly grab his/her Bat'leth and go rip the Drones several New Ones.) They develop remodulators to try and make their failed weaponry work for a few more shots... They develop weapons that can produce a miniscule amount of Kinetic damage to try and overcome the shielding systems of the Borg. They develop specialized armor and shielding tech that is somewhat effective and in some cases (HG) nice for getting in to use some of those precious close range weapons.

I know ultimately you would end up with a serious arms race but that is kind of fun and is what really happens. Anyone else think that it is just a bit painful that if an enemy has a notable weakness that a big organization like the Federation would actively choose to ignore it? I will say this as a caveat though: If they reveal at some point that the reason for this is that the Borg have in some way infiltrated the Federation and are actually doing their best to hamstring the Federation's plans to defeat them from the top down that would be Awesome and I would totally forgive the oversight.

Actually, the Federation did develop a weapon specifically to fight the Borg. The TR-116. This weapon was developed (and used, according to some soft-canon sources), but was eventually shelved because it was solely offensive rather than usable for other things (like heating, impromptu batteries, etc).

The TR-116 even exists in-game. Unfortunately, like most weapons in STO, the in-game version is a sad mockup of what the TR-116 actually was on-screen. It also doesn't even look like the one we saw. But it's there (and yes, it does shoot through walls).

Also, as a bit of irony, it's stated in the DS9 episode that the TR-116 replication patterns were available to all starfleet officers. yet this incredibly common weapon that anyone could get... is only available to the lucky few who managed to get a copy of STO from Target.

The concept of Infantry engagements in Sci Fi always requires a bit of a stretch of the imagination. Full scale infantry engagements between equal foes became a thing of the past with World War 1. Combined arms wins the day.

Now for the excuse? Last resort, you always save you best weapon for the last resort. I'm sure there are plenty of projectile weapons stored on ESD and at core federation world armories. But starfleet doesn't want to run the risk of using them yet, having the borg adapt to them, and have nothing left to fall back on. Hey, I convinced myself!

Shields will deflect ranged kinetic weapons. Once they erect their shield, that will pretty much be the end of that. That does make me wonder why they just don't activate the barrier every time they enter combat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cuatela

The TR-116 even exists in-game. Unfortunately, like most weapons in STO, the in-game version is a sad mockup of what the TR-116 actually was on-screen. It also doesn't even look like the one we saw. But it's there (and yes, it does shoot through walls).

The Borg would simply adapt with a transport inhibitor to counter that version of the weapon.